A short distance further, another dirt road, almost as narrow as a path, veered off to the right. Deciding not to chance getting stuck on the narrow road, she parked and started walking.
A rotted wooden fence enclosed the small cemetery. The gate hung off the hinges and partially blocked the entrance. She stepped over the gate and surveyed headstones nearly obscured by tall weeds in the overgrown field. After surveying the number of graves, she decided the odds were pretty good at finding Rosie's, even if she had to inspect each one.
"Rosie, where are you?" she said as she walked to the first row of graves.
After looking at each grave and working her way to the middle of the cemetery, Enid leaned down to wipe the dirt off a simple granite marker. Her hand tingled as she ran her finger across the words, "Rose Marie Garrett." She wiped another row of writing and read the girl's birthdate and year of death.
Enid stood over the grave. It had sunken a few inches and several beer bottles and a used condom, brittle from exposure to the sun, were resting in the indented earth. Enid kicked the debris aside and stooped down to pull the weeds away from the headstone. After a few minutes, she realized the futility of trying to clean the grave without proper tools, so she wiped her hands on her already stained jeans and placed her hand on the headstone.
"Rosie, you don't know me. My name is Enid. I'm married to your cousin Cade."
A crow sitting on a nearby headstone screeched in protest to Enid's intrusion. She glanced around before continuing her conversation with Rosie.
"I'm so sorry you've been forgotten. I want to tell your story. Who were you? What did you want to do with your life?"
The crow flew away and startled Enid. She looked around again and saw a cloud of dust close to where her car was parked. She shaded her eyes with her hand and tried to see who was coming. And then she heard the sound of a motorcycle. Her heart was pounding as she assessed her escape route and discovered there was no way out other than the way she came in.
She brushed the dust from her clothes and stood tall. Don't be afraid. She silently cursed Cassie for putting fear in her head. Maybe he’s just out for a ride.
As she began walking back to her car, she turned her ankle on a small rock and leaned down to check her foot. The sound of footsteps behind her made her stand up quickly and turn around.
A man with a bandana around his head smiled. A large Bowie knife protruded from a worn leather sheath on his belt. His shirt sleeves had been roughly cut away making the shirt sleeveless. His muscular arms were leathery from years of sun exposure but, surprisingly, his arms had no body art.
"Well, well. What we got here?" said the bandana man.
"I came to visit a family grave, but I was just leaving." Enid started walking away and tried not to wince when a pain shot through her ankle.
The man whistled and two men on motorcycles drove over the fallen wooden entrance gate and headed toward Enid, stopping just a few feet away. She coughed as dust filled her lungs. She surveyed the men and stood tall, hoping to hide the fear that gripped her. She took a step forward, and one of the men moved his bike to block her path.
"I apologize if I'm disturbing something here. Let me be on my way."
The bandana man laughed. "My, my, what a fine piece of ass you are. You got spunk, too. I like that.” He turned to the two other men, both of whom were shirtless and clad in faded jeans and leather vests. "Don't you?" They nodded in agreement. Bandana man looked over at Rosie's grave. "This here your family?"
Enid tried to speak but her voice cracked nervously. She managed to say, "Yes. That's my husband's cousin."
"That's the gal that got herself killed, ain't it," he said, more like a statement than a question.
Enid cleared her throat again. "Yes, she was murdered here about ten years ago." She added, "Here in Madden, I mean."
"That's a shame, it surely is." He walked back over to Enid and put his face close to hers. "Hate to see bad things happy to such a sweet, pretty ass." He spat on the ground by Enid's foot.
She recoiled involuntarily as the brown liquid splattered on her shoe and fought the bile rising in her throat. "Did you know her? Were you friends with Rosie?"
"Don't recall." He looked at the other bikers. "You friends with her?" Both shook their heads without changing their expressions. Bandana man then grabbed Enid's arm so suddenly, she yelped. He laughed. "I'd get me some of your ass today, but I got me some business to take care of." He whispered in her ear, "Later," and let go of her arm.
Enid gasped for air and tried to control her breathing.
Bandana man walked back to where his motorcycle was parked and kick-started the loud motor. When he left, the two other bikers raced their motors and followed him out of the cemetery.
Enid watched them ride down the road in a swirl of dust. Feeling dizzy from the heat and fear, she leaned over and tried to tell herself she was safe now. Her ankle had begun to swell and she felt sick to her stomach. She felt a hot sting on her leg and looked down to realize she was standing in an ant bed. She slapped her jeans, trying to kill the ants crawling up her pants leg, desperate to stop them before they made they made their way further up her body.
When Enid finally made it back to her car, her ankle was throbbing, her throat was parched, and her leg was stinging from the ant bites. She managed to turn the car around and headed back to the main road toward the inn. Cassie’s warning kept playing in her head. Be careful.
CHAPTER 13
After showering and changing into fresh clothes, Enid put ointment on her ant bites. She realized she had not returned Cade’s earlier call, and she had promised Jack she would talk to Cade. It would be two hours earlier in Montana, but she decided to call anyway.
Cade answered on the first ring. “Hello.”
“Hi, it’s me. Sorry I didn’t call you back right away. How’s the interview going?”
“Pretty good, actually. I’ve done a couple one-on-ones, and today they’re going to do a panel interview with me, with the team I would be working with.”
“Sounds pretty serious then.”
“I like what I see so far. How’s things in Charlotte?”
Enid hesitated. “Well, I’m not in Charlotte. I’m in Madden.”
“Madden? What the … what are you doing there?” Cade said, raising his voice.
“I took a few weeks leave them from the bank. Since you were gone, I decided to do some research on Rosie.” Enid braced herself, waiting for Cade’s reaction.
“What is there to research? I told you not much had been done. Shouldn’t we have talked about this first?”
“Like we talked about your going to Montana to interview for a job?”
Cade didn’t reply, and since there was no point in hashing this out over a long-distance phone call, she continued. “I think there’s potential for a follow-up story on her. In fact, I met with the reporter who originally covered her murder.”
“You mean Jack?”
“Yes, he asked about you.”
“He’s a good guy. Tell him I said hello. Does Mother know you’re there?”
“No, and I’d appreciate it if you didn’t tell her, at least not yet. I haven’t decided anything yet.”
“She’s not going to be happy.”
I’m sure she won’t. “How long will you be in Montana?”
“I haven’t decided yet. I’ll let you know. How long will you be in Madden and where are you staying?”
“I’m house sitting in exchange for a room. Not sure how long I’ll be here.” Enid chided herself for withholding information because of Cade’s evasiveness. When had they become strangers? “By the way, was there something you wanted to tell me when you called earlier?”
“It can wait. I need to get ready for this panel interview thing, so I’m going to run. And … and, please be careful. I don’t feel good about you being there. Let me know if you find out anything interesting. Love you, ‘bye now.” He hung up before Enid could reply, which was
just as well.
* * *
When Enid walked downstairs to the library, Jack and Cassie were laughing together. As soon as they realized she had come in, they stopped talking.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you," said Enid. She walked to a chair across from the sofa where Cassie and Jack were sitting, trying not to limp on her sore ankle.
Cassie stood up and moved away from Jack. "Oh, you weren't interrupting anything. I've got to get busy with some paperwork." Before leaving the room, Cassie turned back to Jack. "Good to see you."
Enid poured herself a glass of iced tea from the tray on the table. "If I didn't know better, I'd say you two had something going on," Enid said, grinning at Jack.
"Cassie was a good friend to me and my wife. Later, Cassie and I became friends. We had dinner here at the inn a few times." Jack cleared his throat. "That's all."
Enid gazed out the window across Glitter Lake. "It seems so peaceful here, but you said I needed to understand some things about Madden."
Jack told Enid about the history of the town, which had been founded in the late 1800s. For many years, it was an agricultural town, primarily growing cotton. Later, many of the family farms were sold and then bought by city folks who turned them into boutique farms.
"So far, it doesn't sound like a very dangerous place."
"Well, I'm getting to that part. In recent years, Madden has developed a drug trafficking problem. We're close enough to the interstate highways to make the long runs, and these little country roads are the perfect place to stage local deliveries."
"You make it sound like a retail distribution system, like Walmart."
"No question about it, these dealers have a well-organized system. Once the drugs hit these areas around here, bikers distribute them to Columbia and all these little surrounding towns on these rural roads."
Enid felt her chest tightening. "Bikers?"
"Yes, motorcycle gangs."
“I think I met a couple of them earlier today." Thinking about the cemetery incident made her leg itch worse. She leaned down and scratched her swollen ankle.
"Where was this?"
"Please don't tell Cassie. She warned me not to go to Pinewood Cemetery alone. I foolishly thought she was being overly protective." Enid tried discreetly to scratch her thigh.
Jack smiled. "You must have met up with some fire ants too. They're all over around this area. The sand makes it easy for them to build mounds. Some get pretty high—a foot or more. You need to take Benadryl for the itching and put some Calamine lotion on those bites to dry them up. Otherwise, those stings will get nastier before they get better."
"We have ants in Charlotte but not like here. I'll run to the drug store later." After Enid gave Jack the details of her encounter with the bikers, she asked, "Are the biker dangerous? Or just good businessmen?"
"They live by a different set of codes than you and I. Cassie was right to warn you," Jack said as he pointed his finger at Enid in a mock scolding. "Next time, you should listen." His expression softened again. "Years ago, I got acquainted with Eddie, the guy who's their leader now, as I understand it. He gave me some good, insightful info for an article I was writing. Of course, I had to be careful what I used so I didn't betray Eddie's trust. I promised not to implicate their gang in any way."
Jack leaned back on the sofa and rubbed his temples several times. When he sat up again, he continued. "Eddie is a good kid who fell into a bad life. His older brother, Sam, was bad to the core, but Eddie worshiped him, mostly because Sam was the only family Eddie had left. The two of them were on their own after their mother overdosed. Another brother, the younger one, got adopted while he was still a baby. Eddie hasn't seen him since the adoptive family took him away. In exchange for his helping me, I promised to find out what I could about his brother."
"Where is Sam now?"
"He got killed by a rival gang member while he was making a drug run."
"And what about Eddie's younger brother? Did you find him?"
"I haven't been able to find out anything about him. Eddie remembers calling him Little G. Without a name or any other information, it was a dead end.” Jack's face tightened and the crease between his eyes deepened. "Has Cassie talked to you about her son?"
"No, she hasn't. Why would she?"
"Well, it's her story to tell, so I'll let her tell you if she wants to. But tread carefully, and don't make her talk about it if she doesn't want to."
Enid studied Jack's somber face. "You care a lot about Cassie, don't you?"
Jack’s face relaxed. "She's a fine lady."
"What else do I need to know about Madden?"
Jack clasped his hands together, appearing as though he was searching for the right words. "One of the reasons the drug business is thriving in Madden is because the local police turn their heads the other way."
"Why would they do that?" Answering her own question, Enid continued, "For money, I suppose."
Jack rubbed his chin. "I can't prove it, but yes, I'm reasonably sure Chief Jensen gets paid to look away."
"Paid by Eddie and his biker gang, you mean?"
"Eddie as much as told me so, yes."
"Why doesn't someone investigate Jensen?"
"The State Law Enforcement Division, what we call SLED in South Carolina, would be the higher authority that would investigate. But they've got to have something concrete to go on, and all I have is a few hints dropped by a local thug and my own suspicions."
"Are you telling me all of this about Madden police corruption because you think it has something to do with Rosie's murder?"
Jack seemed to be weighing his words before responding. "Like I said, I don't have any proof. And pardon me for saying this, but other than the fact that you're Cade's wife, you're a stranger to me. The last thing I need is for you to go around telling folks I said the police department is corrupt. When you head back to Charlotte, I'll be left to deal with the fallout."
"I may not have a lot of experience writing about crime, but I know how to handle confidential information."
"You’re right, and I didn't mean to insult you." Jack's smile faded. "There's a few other things you need to be aware of before you go off tromping through cemeteries alone and poking your nose around doing research." He rubbed his chin in the now-familiar gesture he used when he was deep in thought. "Chief Jensen's son, Ray, was a friend of Rosie's."
"You mean like dating?"
Jack sat up in his chair. "Oh, good Lord, no. Or at least not openly. The Jensens are like royalty around here. No offense, but Rosie wasn't in the same social strata."
"What do you mean then? They were platonic friends? Or did they meet secretly? For sex, drugs … both?"
"I realize this is painful for you to hear. It’s hard to be objective about family."
Enid thought before she spoke. "I appreciate your concern, but she is Cade's family, not mine. I never knew her. And, as a journalist, I can make myself be as objective as I need to be. I just want to know more about her." She sighed. "At least I'm beginning to understand why Fern didn't want me digging into Rosie's life."
Cassie knocked on the door and came in. "You two look way too serious." She smiled. "Anything I can bring you?"
Jack stood up. "No, I was headed out." He handed Enid a file folder. "Here. Read this. It’s my notes and interviews. And then let's talk some more."
Jack kissed a blushing Cassie on the cheek as he walked out the door.
CHAPTER 14
Enid was sitting on her bed at the inn when her cell phone rang. From the number, she could tell it was a local caller, but one she didn’t recognize.
“Hello,” said Enid.
“Hi, Enid, this is Molly. You know, Molly Anderson from the Madden Police. The chief will meet with you at his office tomorrow afternoon at two o’clock. That is, if you’re available then.”
“Yes, of course. Thanks for setting it up.”
“He said to tell you he won’t have but a few minutes.�
�
“I’ll try to be as brief as possible. Thanks, Molly.”
Before Enid could end the call, Molly said, “If you’re not busy tonight, I’d like to invite you to dinner. My daughter, Rachel, is coming over. I thought you might like to come, if you’re free.”
Caught off-guard, Enid hesitated before answering. “Well, yes, of course. I’d love to come.”
* * *
Molly smiled when Enid handed her the bouquet of fresh flowers Cassie had given her from the inn’s garden. When Enid told Cassie about Molly’s invitation, Cassie had assured her that Molly loved to cook and often invited people over to her house. Taking flowers was Cassie’s idea.
“Thanks. It’s been a while since anyone gave me flowers.” Molly motioned for Enid to come in.
“And it’s been a while since I’ve been invited to anyone’s house. Seems like most of my friends in Charlotte are from work, and we’re usually too busy to get together—other than for a quick lunch at a restaurant.”
Cassie took Enid’s tote bag and put it on the hall table. “Come on in the kitchen. I’m just finishing dinner. Rachel is setting the table.” Molly stuck her head in the dining room door. “Rachel, honey, come meet Ms. Blackwell.”
Rachel walked into the kitchen and smiled. “Hi. Nice to meet you.” She twirled a piece of hair in her hand. Her fingernails had been chewed until they were raw looking.
“Nice to meet you too, Rachel.” Enid put out her hand. Rachel seemed surprised by the gesture, but took Enid’s hand and then quickly released it.
Enid helped Molly and Rachel get the food to the table. Molly sat at the head of it, with Enid to her left and Rachel to her right.
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